Building envelope · Facades & Cladding
Brick Slip Cladding System
This entry explains what carries a brick slip facade once the depth of a masonry leaf is taken away: the carrier and its fixings, what the pointing does and does not do, and how movement between a thin facing and its backing is absorbed.
Educational reference entry. How this system behaves depends on climate, jurisdiction, loading, substrate, the adjacent systems it meets, how the building is used, the manufacturer's instructions and qualified professional design.
Overview
What brick slip facade is
Thin brick facings are held on a carrier, which may be a rail, a board or a factory-made panel, and the carrier is fixed back to a wall or a subframe. The result reads as brickwork from the street while contributing no bearing of its own and none of the depth a masonry leaf would have brought with it. Everything a masonry leaf normally provides for itself has to be provided by something else.
The nearest sibling is the masonry veneer over frame system, and the boundary is settled at the bottom of the wall. A veneer stands on something: a footing, a plinth or a supporting angle, and its weight runs down through itself to that bearing. A slip facade has no continuous bearing line; its weight is distributed into fixings all the way up the elevation. Remove the carrier and the facing falls, which is not true of a veneer with its base support intact.
A second visible test sits at the corners and reveals. A veneer turns a corner with a whole brick and shows a genuine return into the opening; a slip facade turns it with a purpose-made angle piece, and the reveal is a facing applied to a lining rather than the side of a leaf. Those pieces exist because the system has to reproduce, as facings, everything a real leaf gets from its own depth.
Terminology
Common names and aliases
These names describe the same assembly. The encyclopedia keeps one entry per system so that a trade term or a regional name never becomes a second, thinner page.
- brick slip facade system
- mechanically fixed brick slip facade
- thin brick cladding system
- brick facing on carrier
Purpose
What this system is intended to do
The job the assembly exists to perform, conceptually. An intention is not a guarantee that any particular build achieves it.
- Produce the appearance and texture of brickwork where the depth or weight of a masonry leaf cannot be accommodated.
- Transfer the weight of the facing into fixings and a carrier rather than down through a self-supporting outer leaf.
- Keep the facing on a backing wall that continues to hold the water and air control layers behind it.
- Allow a facing to be applied to framed, panelised or insulated constructions that could not carry a masonry leaf.
Composition
The roles this system is made of
What each part does in the assembly and what it depends on — never a product, a thickness, a fixing or a determination that anything is adequate for the role.
Order is meaningful in this system. The roles below sit in sequence, and moving one relative to another changes what the assembly does. The sequence is conceptual only: it states no thickness, no dimension, no fixing and no order of work on site.
- Layer 1 of 7. Order is meaningful.Primary supportBacking wall or subframe
The construction the carrier is fixed to, and the element that ultimately holds the facade up. Whether it is masonry, a framed wall or a rail system determines what a fixing can do and how far apart supports can be placed by the designer.
- Layer 2 of 7. Order is meaningful.SubstrateCarrier rail, board or panel
The element the slips are actually attached to. It converts a scattered set of small facings into one supported plane, and its own fixing pattern is where the weight of the entire facade lives. Its type also decides whether a drained space exists behind.
- Layer 3 of 7. Order is meaningful.AttachmentFixings and the bond to the carrier
Each slip is held either by adhesive, by a mechanical profile in the carrier, or by both. Because a slip has no depth to hold itself, that connection is structural for every unit on the wall, not merely a bond between a finish and a background.
- Layer 4 of 7. Order is meaningful.Finish surfaceBrick facings
The visible units. They set colour, texture and bond pattern, take the weather at the outer face and shelter the carrier behind, but they contribute no depth and no self-weight path of their own to the assembly holding them up.
- Layer 5 of 7. Order is meaningful.Jointing and sealingPointing between the facings
The material filling the gaps between slips. It reads as mortar and behaves quite differently: it is a thin band over a carrier joint rather than a bed between units, and where it cracks or debonds, water reaches the carrier directly rather than a wall.
- Layer 6 of 7. Order is meaningful.Drainage planeDrained space behind the carrier
Where the carrier is mechanically supported clear of the backing wall, a route exists for water that crosses the pointing to run down and leave. Where the carrier is bonded directly to a substrate, that route does not exist and the pointing carries far more responsibility.
- Layer 7 of 7. Order is meaningful.Edge and terminationCorner, reveal and base units
Purpose-made angle, header and closer pieces that produce a return, an arris or a stopped edge. They are the parts most often supported differently from the field, and they are where a failure exposes the carrier rather than another brick behind.
Interaction
How the parts work together
The reason this is a system rather than a list of parts: what depends on what, and what stops working when one part is changed.
The load path is inverted compared with brickwork. In a leaf, each unit rests on the one below and the wall carries itself to a base; here every facing hangs from its connection to the carrier, and the carrier hangs from its fixings. That makes two things structural which normally are not: the bond or key between slip and carrier, and the arrangement of fixings behind a surface nobody can see once the facade is finished.
What the pointing means depends entirely on the carrier behind it. Over a mechanically supported carrier standing clear of the wall, pointing that lets a little water through hands it to a drained space that can return it outside. Over a carrier bonded flat to a substrate, the same water has nowhere to go and sits at the back of the facing, where freeze-thaw of the retained water and repeated wetting and drying both act on the connection between slip and carrier.
The facing and its backing also move differently. Clay expands with moisture over time and everything moves with temperature, while a board, a rail or a framed wall behind responds on its own terms. Without joints placed to absorb that difference, movement gathers where the assembly is stiffest, at corners and around openings, and appears as cracked pointing, then as displaced slips at exactly the pieces that are hardest to replace.
Materials
Material families commonly met in each role
Commonly encountered, not recommended. Whether a material suits a given project depends on the whole assembly, the exposure, the manufacturer's documentation and qualified professional review.
Finish surface
Facing families of these kinds are commonly encountered as the visible units, cut or purpose-made. How a given facing is held, and whether matching pieces will still exist for a later repair, are questions for the manufacturer's documentation and the designer.
Substrate
Board and panel families of this sort are commonly encountered as carriers. Which can be used behind a particular facing, and how it is supported, follows from the tested combination described in the documentation rather than from the board alone.
Attachment
Rail, bracket and adhesive components of these families are commonly encountered holding carrier and facings. Because each connection is carrying weight rather than merely bonding a finish, the arrangement is a matter for structural design.
Jointing and sealing
Pointing and sealing components of these kinds are commonly encountered between and around facings. Whether a material will bond to both the facing and the carrier at once is a compatibility question answered by the documentation for each.
Junctions
Where this system meets others
Interfaces are where most assemblies actually fail, so they are set out explicitly rather than left inside the prose. What resolves a junction is a detail designed for the specific building — not a rule of thumb.
The facade this one imitates
The two are frequently used on the same building, a veneer at ground level and slips above where weight matters. Where they meet, the bond pattern has to line through while the two are supported in entirely different ways, and the junction has to allow for that.
Read about Masonry Veneer Wall →Reveals, heads and sills
Openings need returns, a supported head and a sill that throws water clear, none of which the facing can provide from its own depth. Every one of those pieces is carried by something behind it, and that support arrives before the frame does.
Read about Window Opening Interface →Where water behind the facing must leave
In a mechanically supported arrangement, water that crosses the pointing needs a tray and an outlet at each level where the space is interrupted. Without them the drained route becomes a reservoir sitting directly behind the facings.
Read about Cavity Trays →Framed backing construction
Framed walls are common hosts because they cannot carry a masonry leaf. The frame's line and accuracy govern how much adjustment the carrier needs, and the frame's own movement becomes movement the facing has to accommodate.
Read about Light Steel Frame Wall →Base of the facing near the ground
The lowest course sits close to splash and to any damp-proof provision in the wall behind. Where the facing stops, whether its bottom edge is supported and whether water can leave at that line together decide how the base of the elevation ages.
Read about Damp-Proof Continuity →
Considerations
Topics worth discussing
Which topics genuinely apply to this system and what to raise about them. Measured values, classes and ratings come from a qualified professional's design for the specific building, not from a reference page.
- Moisture
- The pointing is thin and continuous over a joint in the carrier, so it is doing more than mortar does in a leaf. Whether water crossing it finds a drained route or a closed space is the single question that separates a durable installation from a fragile one.
- Movement
- Clay facings and their backing respond to moisture and temperature on different terms. Joints placed to absorb that difference decide whether it is taken up harmlessly or concentrated at corners and opening reveals where the special pieces are.
- Durability
- A displaced facing is not like a spalled brick; it exposes a carrier that was never intended to be seen or weathered. That changes what an isolated defect means and how quickly it needs attention once it appears on an elevation.
- Maintenance and access
- Replacing a facing means matching a weathered unit and re-forming its connection to a carrier behind. Whether the original facings can still be obtained, and whether spares were kept, decides how a repair will read from the pavement.
- Buildability
- Setting out is unforgiving because bond pattern, corner pieces and opening returns all have to align on a carrier fixed earlier. Errors in the carrier survive into the finished face and cannot be adjusted once facings are on it.
Design
Questions the design has to answer
The decisions this assembly turns on. They are questions rather than answers, because the answer depends on the building.
- What carries the weight of every facing on this elevation, and whether that path is drawn as clearly as the bond pattern, is worth establishing first.
- Whether the carrier is bonded to a substrate or supported clear of it changes whether any water crossing the pointing has a route back out.
- Whether a joint in the facing has a matching joint in the carrier and in the backing behind it decides whether differential movement is taken up in the joint or in the pointing.
- How corners, reveals and the base are formed, and what supports those special pieces, is usually the hardest part of the setting out.
- Whether spare facings from the same batch will be kept determines how an isolated repair will read once the elevation has weathered.
- How the facade would be inspected for loose facings, and from what access equipment, is a question that belongs in the design rather than in handover.
Boundaries
Commonly misunderstood points
Distinctions that are easy to blur, and the places where a familiar term means something narrower than it sounds.
- The facade is read as brickwork, when nothing in it carries itself and the visible units contribute no structural depth.
- The pointing is assumed to work like mortar in a wall, when it is a thin band over a carrier rather than a bed between units.
- A single displaced facing is treated as cosmetic, when it exposes a carrier that was never designed to face the weather.
Conversations
Questions for qualified professionals
Bring these to the relevant qualified professional, manufacturer or authority. Requirements vary by project and location.
- What is the carrier here, what is it fixed back to, and how has the weight of the facing been accounted for?
- Is there a drained route behind the facing, and if so where does water leave at each level and opening?
- How is differential movement between the facing and the backing accommodated, and where are those joints located?
- What supports the corner, reveal and base pieces, given that they cannot be supported by facings around them?
- How would a loose or missing facing be identified and replaced, and what access would that require?
What this page does not do
- Appearance is not evidence of construction here; a facade that reads as masonry may be carried entirely by fixings behind a facing.
- Facings and pointing do not exclude water on their own, and what happens to water crossing them depends on the carrier arrangement behind.
- Fixing anything into this facade later, from a light to a handrail, means fixing into a carrier rather than into a wall, and needs checking first.
Related systems
How this system relates to others
Every link states what the relationship actually is, rather than leaving a bare list of related pages to be read as a suggestion.
Alternatives
Different systems answering the same need. Listing them together is not a comparison and does not suggest one is better — which, if either, suits a project is a design decision.
Meets these systems
Systems this one physically meets. The junction is usually where the design problem lives, so these are worth reading together.
Commonly built alongside
Systems routinely present in the same building without necessarily touching this one.
Go deeper
Related Build Design Hub guides
Planning guidance behind the decisions this assembly involves.
Preparation
Related planning checklists
Owner-side preparation before the conversation where this system comes up.
Inspiration
Related Ideas Library pages
Design directions where this system commonly appears.
Facade and Cladding Systems
Outer skins carried on a wall that is already complete behind them, where the support, the joint and the cavity carry the durable knowledge rather than the finish.
Browse all facades & cladding entries →